Within the rich lineage of Alberta Métis Cultural History and indigenous history overall, Julia Auger offers up her own experiences.
When asked “who are the Métis people and what does it mean to be Métis?”, Auger said, “We are. I’m a Métis. I’m a mixed life. Not white. I’m not really… I live in both worlds.”
Auger worries that the tenets of Metis culture are starting to disappear with the younger generation and that Metis cultural practice should be taught in schools.
Julia Auger’s treasured childhood memories included several family and social gatherings like getting together every year at the gravesite to clean the grave and have a picnic.
Alberta Métis Cultural History
The earliest Paddle Prairie settlers came over circa 1938/1939 but Auger came over in 1942 when she was two years old. There was a strong sense of connection in the family despite being “poor as country mice”. Resourcefulness was key in many ways in PPMS. For example, without a doctor in close proximity, the utilization of things like wild peppermint and rat root for colds and became necessary.
When the question was posited, “would you be able to share any hunting, fishing, or trapping stories that were particularly special to you?”, Auger stated, “Well, my dad had to trap. We’re talking all men in Paddle Prairie for many years had to trap. That was your livelihood. And I think 1 squirrel is about $0.50. You can imagine how many we need it. But many years too. It was very cheap. You can get a can of milk for ten cents. I like this at home. All the young ones, married people and families, the men had to go out trapping. And they’ve done horse logging. In fact, the school was built by local people.”
Auger’s son is also a hunter and utilizing every aspect of a hunted animal so as to not let anything go to waste is essential. Also, an economy of hunting where one is not getting too greedy is key. So as to create a sustainable framework that can last for future generations ideally.
In terms of gathering food and traditional medicines from Paddle Prairie territory, Auger quipped, “Well, now it’s hard. Since the fire we can’t just go to the Bush now and get rat root, wild peppermint, or sage. And there’s that red Willow. Most of our medicines and game is gone from the fire.”
Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement
There was a lot of nuance and detail in Julia Auger’s description of what she would want to preserve and pass on to the future Metis people. An answer that encompassed positive aspects of her cultural living but also painful generational traumas suffered.
Auger stated, “For them to know their culture, their language, their music. Cree is fading. Out fiddle music, we don’t have anymore. The Cree language. My experience with the language they tried to knock it out of me. And this was in Paddle Prarie Residential School. My knuckles look: that’s from the ruler being hit because I could not speak English. I went to school. I knew 2 words, yes and no. Because mom and them spoke mainly French and Cree or like I said Michif. And you don’t pick up. So I went to school and one year, I didn’t talk. But I said I’ll learn the English language.”
“That’s how come I didn’t teach my kids. I said if I ever have kids, I’m not going to teach them Cree. Because I don’t want them to suffer like I did. And you know, I went to school when I was 6. Then I had to be out of school for six months because I feel bad. And I didn’t go back to 7. I still only knew the Cree language. It was hard. Getting hit by a child, like I got kicked in the shins by one of the boys. I couldn’t talk to a teacher. Couldn’t tell her who hit me. I couldn’t tell why. Because I could not speak the language.”
Julia Auger
Auger continued, “I didn’t realize how that treatment in school impacted me until I went to university and I took native studies in order to get the Cree language. I wasn’t able to do my tests, to read, to pass an exam until they ask me to translate the English language to Cree, I couldn’t do it. I could not do that. Take my English language and make it write out the Cree version. Aw, that hurt. I cried and cried. [indiscernable] Because you remember the pain. [indiscernable] Nobody knows how important the Cree language is.”
Finally, when asked “How can we work together to ensure Paddle Prairie has a bright future forward?”, Auger said, “The parents has to learn. Before he competes their kids from marriage. They were doing good here when they were learning Cree and dancing. I used to teach the kids to dance after school taught in the Cree language. Can teach verbally, but I cannot write. I know Mary Richard would tell you the same thing. We had the same treatment.”
Auger continued, “Even if I went home crying, my dad wish you weren’t who you were here, right? But we always had, in music. From an early age, My dad used it as a discipline tool. When we started acting up as kids in person. He’d take out his fiddle and would make us dance, we have; we played out and then we could leave.”
Liberty Multimedia Inc. and Paddle Prairie Métis Settlement would like to thank Alberta Culture for its support of these interviews and dedication to preserving Alberta’s history.